Though it may be a ‘down’ week in college football, there is still the potential for some chaos and a few upsets in Week 12, putting these teams on alert.
The next to last week of the college football regular season, for the most part, is a strange one. After weeks of watching conference battles and high-profile matchups take place throughout the country, things shift a bit in the penultimate week of the season. With most teams having rivalry games looming in the final week of the year, you see a number of teams put less than stellar competition on the schedule in Week 12.
A prime example in the 2018 college football season is no doubt the Alabama Crimson Tide. Fresh off of wins over the LSU Tigers and Mississippi State Bulldogs, Nick Saban’s team will now get a massive respite as they welcome The Citadel to Tuscaloosa on Saturday ahead of their season finale against Auburn and then, of course, the SEC Championship Game.
The Tide aren’t alone, however. With the Florida Gators playing Idaho, LSU playing Rice, the Georgia Bulldogs playing UMass and with several other examples, this certainly isn’t a marquee week for college football. In other words, it would be a monumental upsets for many underdogs to pull off a win this week.
Having said that, it’s not unanimously the case. While this may not be the most high-profile week of the season, there are still plenty of worthwhile matchups to keep an eye on, and a few that could result in upsets that shake up the College Football Playoff rankings and more.
With that in mind, let’s put these five teams on upset alert for Week 12 of the 2018 season.
5. Ohio State Buckeyes
Rank: 10 | Opponent: Maryland Terrapins | Time: Noon ET
The Maryland Terrapins are not in a great position right now. Not only is there a multitude of issues still ongoing with the program at large and how they’ve handled everything with now-fired head coach DJ Durkin, but they’ve also had some hardships on the field as well. The Terrapins have lost three of their last four games, most recently dropping a 34-32 game to the Indiana Hoosiers. That game was more costly than just another loss, however.
In that game, Maryland lost starting quarterback Kasim Hill for the season. Therefore, it would be reasonable to think that a 5-5 Terps team playing without their starting quarterback isn’t going to have much of a shot against the 10th-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes on Saturday afternoon. Yet, I’m still giving Maryland a chance.
In truth, this has less to do with the Terrapins and more to do with Ohio State right now. Urban Meyer’s team has not looked good at all in the last three weeks, even in the win over Michigan State last week, in which the Spartans did more to beat themselves than the Buckeyes did to take control and seize the victory.
Despite the fact that Hill is out for Maryland, they should be able to still move the ball some against the Buckeyes defense with how poorly they’ve been playing. And, if Ohio State indeed continues to go away from the run game too much, interim head coach Matt Canada could find himself leading the Terrapins to a monstrous win in the Big Ten.